Students present ideas for the town hall square in Büddenstedt

Seven students from Ostfalia have developed concepts for future use.

Wolfenbüttel. On July 7, the final presentation of student projects on the redesign of Büddenstedt's town hall square took place at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences in Wolfenbüttel . Since March of this year, seven students from the "Smart City Engineering" program have been developing concepts for the future use of the town hall square under the direction of Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan Büchsenschuss. The city of Helmstedt reported on this in a press release.

After an initial site visit to assess the situation using photographic documentation and a second site visit to assess the square's accessibility under the guidance of Professor Dr.-Ing. Christoph J. Menzel, the students prepared analyses of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the town hall square and developed an initial vision for the new planning.

Development of design ideas

In an initial presentation on May 26, these interim results were presented to Swantje Behrens and Sonja Groß from the City of Helmstedt's Urban Planning and Environment department. With the feedback from the meeting, the students began to develop their design ideas in detail. This included topics such as surface materiality, green space and drainage planning, and a cost estimate.

In the presentation last Monday, the results of the study work were presented in the form of plan drawings to the two representatives of the city of Helmstedt and the mayor of Büddenstedt, Dirk Zogbaum.

Unsealing of the square

In terms of content, the various projects prioritized removing the surface of the large square to create new green spaces and designing a marketplace with shaded recreational areas. The students also critically examined the traffic flow and redesigned it using different approaches.

Basis for the planning process

The students' ideas form the basis for the ongoing planning process for the redesign of Büddenstedt's town hall square, which was initiated by citizen participation as part of the "Village Development" funding program for the Büddenstedt, Reinsdorf, and Hohnsleben region. The square's redesign measure is listed in the village development plan for the "Coal Villages" region and is thus one of the first implementation goals that the city of Helmstedt is addressing as part of the village development program in Büddenstedt. In the next phase of the project, a planning contract will be awarded, and citizen participation in the square's design will take place.